World Cup: Who's drawn the most penalties – and why Ghana are terrifying

Fred's flop in Brazil's 3-1 win over Croatia on Wednesday became the talking point of the first day of the World Cup. And it got us thinking: How many penalties have there been in tournament history? And who's drawn the most?

Consensus around the office was that Brazil surely would be in the lead, but not so -- that call put them into a three-way tie for second on nine drawn penalties with two other perennial powers, Germany and Italy.

The leaders? Scroll all the way to the bottom of this (very long) chart below:

Ukraine

1

Senegal

1

Egypt

1

Paraguay

1

Slovakia

1

USA

1

Norway

1

Australia

1

Nigeria

1

Tunisia

1

Republic of Ireland

2

South Korea

2

Croatia

2

Hungary

2

Romania

2

Cameroon

2

Austria

2

Côte d'Ivoire

2

South Africa

2

Peru

2

Belgium

3

Chile

3

Yugoslavia

3

Bulgaria

3

Saudi Arabia

3

Russia

3

USSR

3

Poland

3

Sweden

4

Scotland

4

Uruguay

4

Denmark

5

Ghana

5

Czechoslovakia

5

England

5

Portugal

6

France

6

Argentina

7

Netherlands

8

Mexico

8

Brazil

9

Italy

9

Germany

9

Spain

15

Total:

163

Defending champions Spain have drawn nearly 10 percent of all the penalties awarded in World Cup history. That's a remarkable number made more so by the fact that they've played only 56 games. Brazil just played their 98th, Germany are at 99, and Italy are at 80.

Ghana's ability to draw penalties is even more eye-popping. They've been awarded five in just nine World Cup games -- including the game-winner against the US back in 2006.

Speaking of the Yanks ... they've won just one PK call in 29 World Cup games. Naturally, it came against Ghana. Clint Dempsey drew it, and Landon Donovan buried it (ringing the right post) in the 2010 knock-out round.

The US and Ghana will get to renew their vows on Monday (6 pm ET; ESPN) in the Group G opener for both teams.